Investor Update

Happy New Year! 2020 will be the year everyone sees the light and we could not be more excited. So much has happened over the past several months that we actually had a difficult time consolidating it into an easily digestible update! So if you have more questions or comments feel free to reach out to me via email or phone.

Investment, Financial & Organization
As you know, in November 2019 we decided to plan a $1.5M raise to take us to profitability. I’m proud to say we are just about to close this second round of capital fundraising. We are waiting on one more investor, who has verbally committed but needs to sign a signed subscription. Response was swift, and we raised $2.1M due to the overwhelming response. Again, this is still based on the same $20M evaluation we used for the first round. We do not see the need to raise any more funds for MezLight for the near future. The MezLight team will never be able to truly communicate our gratitude to you all for your trust in our amazing product, and mostly for the trust in us. We take it to heart and pledge to you that we will not let you down. Your commitment to us is a huge positive motivation.

Kevin and Honkamp are very good at helping us manage all finances, and Heidi is staying very close also. Since the influx of money was pretty large and we added investors, Kevin suggested some basic internal controls for us to implement. It’s really the next step to maturing as a company.

There isn’t much new here other than I’m now 100% focused on MezLight. Most of you know I was CEO of our IT company in Milwaukee for the past few years. We’d planned for this transition all along, so vcpi was ready for the leadership change. I will manage my time as I did with vcpi, primarily with 30-60-90 day goals, and request feedback from my team in real time. I tell people honest direct feedback is what I thrive on and respond to best. I do work for you, MezLight investors, so feel free to communicate directly with me at any time. If any time you’d like to ask questions, or need more information, please do not hesitate.

Design & Manufacturing

Since our last update Bill has worked closely with the team at Bridgemedica to evaluate and update the design for cost, performance and manufacturing considerations. This has included mechanical and electrical system updates and has resulted in a truly robust, high quality design solution. Comprehensive design documentation for release to our tooling and parts vendors is being completed this month while we simultaneously fabricate and evaluate a set of final prototypes that capture our changes and revisions. This parallel effort is helping to streamline our development and commercialization timeline.  '

In a parallel effort, our optics supplier Lumenflow has tooled the final silicone lens parts, which are a critical element to the system performance, and has tested and verified that we are at or exceeding our lighting performance.

Packaging samples have been submitted by several vendors and are being evaluated by the team with very favorable price quotes. The final packaging design decision is pending the results of shipping survivability testing.

Finally, Bridgemedica has transitioned all documentation into their ISO13485 certified quality management system. Bridgemedica will now be creating and managing all QMS documentation as we move closer to production and FDA registration.'

Last week Heidi, Bill and Craig met with David Casimir to review our US Patent in prosecution.  Bill shared some final design changes, and David agreed our patent filing should incorporate additional design elements.  So, David will soon be filing a Continuation-In-Part (“CIP”) patent action to add what we are tentatively calling the MezLink.  David estimates this CIP will improve our odds of obtaining a patent by 25%.  Also, David encouraged the MezLight team to use the labeling “patent pending” on the various products and features of the MezLight system under the claims of the patent application.

Heidi and David will also follow-up to assure MezLight the benefit of trademarks for product names, attributes, and branding elements.  So, in addition to “patent pending” you will see TM labeling names like MezLight, MezPost, MezPower, MezLink, MezKit, and phrases like “get lit”.

Sales & Marketing

We have been preparing for the trade show season which for us starts first week of April. We have budgeted for 4 tradeshows so far this year. I made a call on Mayo Clinic and got an agreement to try out the MezLight. Josh has provided us with a very clear list of his friends and supporters that are willing to try the product. Heidi and I will be contacting all of them to arrange an in person visit early this year and to start understanding the process we need to follow to get each doctor to be able to try MezLight in the OR.  We also have our list of over 200 tradeshow leads of those surgeons who want to try the MezLight.

Heidi has acquired mannequins created to demonstrate MezLight’ s application in neck and hand surgery. This will be especially relevant for the AAES event in Birmingham, in which thyroid procedures are prevalent in this specialty.

In addition, Heidi has been working with the Value Assessment team at UW Hospital to get us into the UW OR as fast as possible. To date there has been positive progress and they are very excited with the potential for our UW surgeon-created medical device.

Lastly, after having the meetings for the newest investors it occurred to me that some of you haven’t met Josh our inventor and ‘super star’ or haven’t even played with the MezLight. If you’d like to please let us know. Having Josh around makes my job really easy. He’s eloquent and so excited to see his idea make this huge impact. We can arrange a fun get together anytime. Thanks again for your confidence in us. 2020 is the year for the surgeons to see better…the year of MezLight.


With gratitude,


Karen Christianson

MezLight CEO & Co-Founder

525 Junction Road

Suite 6500

Madison, WI 53717

f 608.960.4610

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